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Thursday, October 25, 2007 12:00 AM

What's so funny about abusive girlfriends?

News about women's role in domestic violence inspires comedy, as well as cries in defense of men.

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  • Thursday, October 25, 2007 09:38 PM

    There's a genuine difference between "getting in a fight" and "domestic violence" or "abuse"

    To count as domestic violence, aggressive physical contact needs to be a repeat activity.

    One of the threads at "Jezebel" describes a whole lot of women who got in a single fight essentially simultaneously with dumping a loser. And the guys were by and large not hurt much.

    This is NOT domestic violence since it's not about domination or power. It's just a garden-variety minor assault. Shit, that happens to even the least pugilistic guys in middle and high school, at least a handful of times.

    As for why abusive girlfriends might be funny in the abstract: it's because it upsets the classical power model, which--in the abstract--is often very funny.

    If some woman is repeatedly beating up a boyfriend to dominate him, well that's something else. It's only funny in the abstract.

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